Budget cuts will 'affect our whole way of life'-Cameron

Prime Minister David Cameron is set to deliver his starkest warning yet about the action needed to tackle Britain's budget deficit and public debt.

He is expected to say today the UK's economic problems are "even worse than we thought" as he sets out why he believes "painful" cuts are necessary, according to the BBC.

Cameron will warn how the £156bn deficit is tackled will affect "our whole way of life" and the "massive deficit and growing debt" are the most urgent issues facing Britain.

He will say: "Today I want to set out for the country the big arguments that form the background to the inevitably painful times that lie ahead of us, why we need to do this, why the overall scale of the problem is even worse than we thought and why its potential consequences are therefore more critical than we feared."

Cameron will also say without tackling the deficit, confidence in the British economy will take a hit. This could risk pushing up interest rates and increasingly taxes will be used to pay interest on the national debt, rather than being spent on public services.

He is expected to say the economic situation left by the previous Government is a lot more serious than he previously thought.

The prime minister already told the Sunday Times there was a "serious problem" with Labour's forecast of 3% growth in 2011.

He indicated there could be cuts to "welfare bills", public sector pay and "the bureaucracy that has built up over the past decade".